


Noble and Most Ancient

by minervamylove



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Basically Narcissa kicks Lucius to the curb when Voldemort comes back and we go from there, Black family madness is not actually a heritable trait, Canon Divergence - Post-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, F/F, F/M, Hermione Granger-centric, Hermione is of age before anything happens with Narcissa, Hogwarts Seventh Year, M/M, NOT REALLY BLACKCEST but kinda, Narcissa Black Malfoy is not and has never been a bored housewife, Narcissa Black Malfoy-centric, Post-Hogwarts, Seer Luna Lovegood, Severus Snape & Narcissa Black Malfoy friendship, Spellcrafter Narcissa Black Malfoy, Time Skips, background Snarry is basically a screwball comedy, for Hermione et al i mean, magical research, make that weird & powerful soulmate magic, possibly gratuitous use of prophet articles, soulmate magic, special powers Luna Lovegood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:35:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25661464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minervamylove/pseuds/minervamylove
Summary: Narcissa Black Malfoy has quite enough to be getting on with, what with the fallout from her high-profile divorce and the second rise to power of a megalomaniacal Dark Lord. But when Draco starts exhibiting rather odd taste in friends, Narcissa is made privy to a discovery about the Black family that could potentially alter the course of the war- and right old wrongs. But in order to see this vital new project through, she must work side by side with golden girl Hermione Granger, her son's former academic rival turned unlikely ally.
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Andromeda Black Tonks, Harry Potter/Severus Snape, Hermione Granger/Narcissa Black Malfoy, Luna Lovegood/Draco Malfoy, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 10
Kudos: 86





	Noble and Most Ancient

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! Rest assured I'm still very much committed to updating The Girl With the Lightning Scar, but this story idea would not let me go. Clearly, this story is set in a completely different 'verse than The Lightning Years. I will continue to update both.
> 
> CW for chapter one: mentioned (and briefly on-page) spousal abuse.

~ _Wiltshire, England, June 1995 ~_

Narcissa Black Malfoy was not, and never had been, a marked Death Eater, but she felt the Dark Lord’s first call in over a decade all the same. She was seated in her private parlor in Malfoy Manor at the time, raising a teacup to her lips while mentally balancing a complicated arithmantic equation, when her left forearm burned white-hot with a pain like a branding iron. Narcissa dropped the teacup, and it seemed to her that the delicate bone china fell in slow motion, tumbling towards the parquet floor in a sort of graceful downward pirouette before it shattered, inevitably, into fragments.

 _Shattered, inevitably._ Yes, the evening— and the foreseeable future— had shattered. Yes, it had most certainly been inevitable.

Narcissa left the broken china on the floor, not even bothering to call for a house elf before turning on her heel and disappearing with a _crack_ , reappearing in the manor’s grand foyer. As usual, her instincts were excellent, and were proven so by the immediate appearance of an unusually wide-eyed Lucius wordlessly summoning his Death Eater regalia.

“You felt it,” he said, his voice both terrified and exhilarated as he reached out his left arm to catch the mask that came sailing out of the main stairwell. The sleeves of his robes had been hurriedly pushed up, and the Dark Mark was stark against his pale skin, black as ink and pulsating almost rhythmically.

Narcissa resisted the urge to rub at her own unblemished forearm. “If you didn’t want me to feel it, you shouldn’t have invoked a Corpore bond.” Of course, if she were Lucius, she would have done the same thing. It had been two years since the first and only time she’d turned her wand on her husband, after finding out that he’d been responsible for the opening of the Chamber of Secrets and the unleashing of a basilisk in the very school where their son ate, slept, learned, and grew. Lucius had never been Narcissa’s equal, magically. His only recourse had been to activate a dormant sub-spell from the traditional pureblood bonding ritual that had married them, a sub-spell that caused any physical harm done to the husband to reflect itself instantly in the body of the wife. Narcissa couldn’t hurt Lucius without hurting herself. And if something else happened to hurt him? Well, she got to suffer that too. But that wasn’t why she wanted to keep him from this particular summons.

“Lucius, think about this for a moment.”

“There’s nothing to think about. Our Lord has returned, I must certainly be there to stand by his side.”

“He was vanquished by an _infant_ , husband. How long will it be this time until Dumbledore and the rest of them destroy him more permanently? Think of how he was slipping into madness, even then. Think of Draco, and of what this will mean for the future!” Narcissa’s voice raised without her quite meaning it to; she knew the futility of the words even as she shouted them. She dropped her tone to a near-whisper and tried one more approach. “Think of the diary, Lucius. It was destroyed after being left in your care. Will the Dark Lord welcome you back despite it?”

Lucius flinched, and Narcissa braced herself: when Lucius was wounded or worried, he lashed out, rather like a serpent. As such, the _Diffindo_ that caught her across the cheek didn’t come as a surprise. Ah, Lucius. He would never raise a hand to his wife like some brutish Muggle, but he would certainly raise his wand.

The _crack_ of Lucius’s Disapparation came at the exact moment that a drop of blood fell from Narcissa’s wound, staining the marble floor of the hall. She watched it, crimson on snow, as it expanded ever-so-slightly, the droplet flattening and spreading. This was not the first time that Lucius had attacked her, but it _was_ the first time he’d drawn blood. Narcissa brought a pale finger to her cheek and smiled.

When the Dark Lord cast _Crucio_ on Lucius, she felt every second of it, but she never cried out— not that anyone but a house elf or two would have heard her. The second the tremors ceased, she picked herself up off the floor, straightened her robes, and Disapparated directly into a solicitor’s office.

* * *

_~ The Daily Prophet, June 1995 ~_

**Triwizard Tournament Ends in Tragedy!**

_The Triwizard Tournament, held this year for the first time in centuries at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland, has come to a tragic end with the death of Hogwarts champion Cedric Diggory during the Third Task. Diggory, a 17-year-old Hufflepuff student, Quidditch captain, and Head Boy, perished while deep within the hedge maze where the Task played out. While Ministry officials have ruled the death accidental, unconfirmed rumors suggest that Diggory was the victim of a Death Eater attack. These rumors were founded upon the words of Hogwarts Triwizard champion and Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter, who was the one to emerge from the maze with Diggory’s body._

_The devastating death of Diggory was only the latest in a series of mishaps and calamities dogging this year’s Triwizard Tournament. Readers will of course be aware that for the first time in history, the Goblet of Fire selected four champions instead of three (see ‘Harry Potter, Chosen or Crazed?’ on page 4). The tournament was also marked by the untimely death of judge and Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Bartemius Crouch. Hogwarts personnel have been largely unavailable for comment, excepting Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, who steadfastly backs Potter’s tale of Death Eater involvement._

_Memorial services for Cedric Diggory will be held on the thirty-first of June._

_* * *_

_~ The Daily Prophet, August 1995 ~_

**Malfoy Divorce Shakes the Sacred Twenty-Eight!**

_In early July, British magical society was shocked when an unnamed source within the Ministry of Magic let slip that Lady Narcissa Malfoy, née Black, was filing for divorce from her husband Lord Lucius Malfoy, citing irreconcilable differences. Today, after quick but no doubt vicious legal proceedings, the divorce was finalized. The former Lady Malfoy, who is once more using her maiden name, was spotted leaving the Ministry after a Wizengamot court session, and eyewitnesses say that she looked ‘victorious.’ Whatever is next for Lady Narcissa Black, she certainly seems ready to greet it._

_Lady Black and Lord Malfoy were married in a traditional bonding ceremony in 1974, and they have one son, Draco, who is currently the heir to both the Malfoy and Black estates (for more about current Black family Lord, escaped convict Sirius Black, see page 7). As readers familiar with magical bonding rites will no doubt be aware, the usual traditional matrimonial bond used by Britain’s oldest pureblood families cannot be dissolved except by death, certain forms of infidelity, or the spilling of blood. While representatives for the solicitors of both Lady Black and Lord Malfoy repeat the official line that the couple separated due to irreconcilable differences, this reporter must regretfully postulate that something more serious was at the heart of the split. Both parties, however, remain unavailable for comment. Lord Malfoy in particular has been unreachable by the press following unfounded accusations from Harry Potter (more on page 3) that he is a Death Eater who assisted in the rumored 'return' of the Dark wizard He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named…_


End file.
